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Archives for July 2013

my new old curtains

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Almost a year ago I lived in San Francisco in a cute little apartment with an amazing set of windows in my living room. I think it will probably always be my favorite apartment because it was the first one I had that was only mine. Well it was only mine in the beginning. Eventually, Tom moved in and it was the first apartment we shared making for just another reason it will always be my favorite apartment. Before he moved in I took some time to make it a little home. My mom even came out for a weekend to help decorate. She helped me come up with an idea for curtains. Then the great mom she is she took all the fabric with her back to Indiana sewed the curtains and mailed them back to me. I didn’t blog as much then and for some reason only thought about blogging about food when I did so I never got to share my curtains.

Here is a shot of the windows I had to work with. The picture only shows four but there were five total. That weird light outside that is the fog that lived outside my apartment most days. You could actually sit by the window and watch the fog roll down the street like smoke from a fire. Since the building was so old it felt like it was rolling through the apartment too.
A standard curtain rod wasn’t going to work int this situation and I really didn’t think it would look great to have five tiny curtain rods so I worked hard on a new idea. It was so long ago I don’t know what the inspiration was but I came up with an idea to use hooks. It is tough to explain so I will just let the pictures do the talking for a minute. I apologize that these are crummy iPhone photos with bad lighting but you will get the gist.

Each window had four hooks and I was able to open and close each curtain as much or as little as I wanted. It was the perfect solution for that room and it made for a really fun place to hangout in.

I love those curtains so much and really wanted to find a spot for them in the new house. For some reason that wasn’t the living room so I decided I could use a few panels in my craft room. A room that since we moved in has been more of a dumping ground than a creative space. This past week I finally made some steps to change that. I got some pictures on the wall and the curtains hung.
I thought that I would just go buy a curtain rod and spray paint it all pinterest style but I am trying not to buy things I don’t need or start new projects before I finish the pile of other projects. Luckily I remembered the hooks and my old curtains became my new curtains.
I used 7 hooks so when I close the curtains the last ring of each panel goes on the middle hook creating an overlap and full coverage.
They still haven’t been hemmed and until we move into our own house some day I will continue to safety pin them to the correct length. I just love them so much I don’t want to commit so I know I will be able to make them the perfect length in their final home.
How about a little before and after to show some of the progress so far. Still has a long way to but I am getting there. It looks so much more inviting when I walk by now.

where are the real housewives

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“These fights with other women are just so meaningless.” How many times have you heard that one while you watched the real housewives of ….. well of anywhere? Most recently it has come out of the mouths of multiple Real Housewives of Orange County.

They sure seem to forget that rather quickly after they all get together and start bickering again. We have watched the Housewives for years but I have had to start weaning myself because it always seems to make me so upset. At first it was fun to be the voyeur and watch and see that just because they are rich their lives aren’t great. It was fun to sit on the couch and judge them. I am such a better person than them. If I had their money I would be better than that. Sitting in judgement of a television show that is edited together for amusement doesn’t really add much value to my day. I still watched most of them for a while but then they started getting down right ugly with each other and I started quitting them.

I had to quit Atlanta because I couldn’t find much to like about any of those ladies. There yelling just seemed ridiculous. Nothing about that seemed like reality or at least not anything I could relate too.

Then I quit New Jersey. If they didn’t have nicer clothes and like to pretend to have manners it would look like an episode of Jersey Shore. You watch just waiting for someone to get into a cat fight. It started making me so tense I would have to leave the room when the fights started.

I was committed to Beverly Hills and New York. I liked some of those women or at least enjoyed seeing what their lives were like. I got sucked into Orange County again and watched in moments that I had nothing else I needed to do.

Last season I finally had to quit New York. I thought the new ladies were going to provide hope and show some sanity. That went down in flames rather quickly. Beverly Hills doesn’t offend me as much but it is getting there quickly. It looks like I will be quitting Orange County this season. I keep finding myself sitting there making disapproving noises like my father does when he thinks something on TV is stupid.

I am sure a large part of why I keep quitting these shows is because the editors keep making it more sensational. Bravo TV is like the new Sally Jessie and Jerry Springer. It isn’t really real, there are people behind the scenes crafting a story they think will be more riveting. However, for them to be able to edit that story together for more drama they have to be provided with large chunks of “quality” to string together.

I wish someone would make shows with good female role models for us. Something like the Dove image campaign. Just quality normal people doing amazing things that we can all aspire to. I don’t want a show of Pollyanna’s, no one wants to watch that. I want a group of women that are dedicate to their families and do something inspiring like run a company or a non-profit or maybe they just donate a lot of time to things they believe in and have a bad day every now and then. It might not be on a major network but someone find them and put it up somewhere. Maybe there aren’t fights and screaming but I bet you could find enough clips to edit together to make interesting “characters” that people would tune in to watch. Those should be the real housewives.

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